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1. Harnessing great power : Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes a fair employment practices committee, 1941. (Executive Order 8802 reaffirming policy of full participation in the defense program by all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, and directing certain action in furtherance of said policy). -- 2. To secure these rights : Harry S. Truman creates the President's committee on civil rights, 1946. (Executive Order 9808 establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights, Extracts from the report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights). -- 3. Opening up neighborhoods: the Supreme Court rules that restrictive covenants cannot be enforced, 1948. (Shelley et ux. v. Kraemer et ux.). -- 4. From the shadow of states' rights : Hubert H. Humphrey calls for a strong civll rights plank in the platform of the Democratic National Convention, 1948. (Speech by Hubert H. Humphrey before the Democratic Convention, July 14, 1948). -- 5. Equality of opportunity in the armed forces : a presidential order heralds a great experiment in democracy, 1948. (Executive Order 9981 establishing the President's Committee on equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces). -- 6. New start for an old idea : the Supreme Court upholds a seventy-five-year old statute prohibiting segregation in Washington, D.C., 1953. (District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Inc.). -- 7. To the heart of the matter : the Supreme Court decides that the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place in public education, 1954. (Brown v. Board of Education). -- 8. The first civil rights law since Reconstruction : the Civil Rights Act of 1957. (The Civil Rights Act of 1957). -- 9. The ordeal of the American Negro : from a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King, Jr., defends direct action, 1963. (Letter from Birmingham Jail.) -- 10. ... a moral issue : John F. Kennedy appeals to the nation, 1963. (An address by John F. Kennedy, June 11, 1963). -- 11. An idea whose time has come : the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (A summary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). -- 12. ... and we shall overcome : Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress to extend the privileges of citizenship to all, 1965. (Remarks of Lyndon B. Johnson to a joint session of Congress, March 15, 1965. |
